Why the rest of the world has embraced performance-related pay.

"Don't laugh, there's a recession on."

Well, it didn't take long, did it? An unelected board is given the power to set it's own pay, and lo and behold they award themselves a 25% raise. On top of a $50k honorarium, the great and good of the Alberta Health Services Board also receive $750 for each meeting they attend, and they attend four meetings a month. Let's do the math:

$50,000 + $37,500 = $87,500

So these fine people earn $87,500 plus for a part-time job. Where do I sign up?

Let's be clear about this - Ron Liepert isn't responsible for the pay raise these people awarded themselves, nor is Ed Stelmach. They are guilty of being too trusting, and assuming that the board members wouldn't do something outrageous in the middle of a recession if they were able to set their own pay rates. Unfortunately, trust does not a contract make, and the lawyers appointed to the board would have been able to point this out.

The people responsible for this debacle are the members of the board who voted for the raise. They moved the motion, they debated it, they voted for it.

It's not like Ron Liepert to be so naieve about these things, he's as sharp an operator as you'll likely find in politics. He's clearly picked some very bright people for the board. In fact, it looks like they might have been a bit too bright, but at the end of the day we don't want dummies running healthcare in Alberta.

Is there anything Stelmach and Liepert can do about this? Not likely - the board members would have studied their contracts and the board bylaws to ensure their raises were watertight. The only thing they can do is learn from this mistake and change the bylaws to ensure that the board loses it's pay-setting powers. Liepert and Stelmach should also make it clear that this behaviour is unacceptable - board members are not members for life, they should be encouraged to show restraint in future. Forcefully encouraged.

Having one health services board for the province makes sense, and Liepert's healthcare reforms have been very encouraging - rewarding people who take care of themselves at the expense of people who don't. In fact, the Conservative government's policy on healthy living has been very strong - from Dave Rodney's Smoke-Free Places Act, to his Physical Activity Tax Credit bill to Liepert's efforts to reform healthcare delivery. These have been progressive and far-sighted pieces of legislation that will benefit us all over the years.

The reform we really need, though, is performance-related pay for the board. Performance measured in terms of increased life expectancy, not waiting times in hospital or the number if ingrowing toenails removed in a month, and certainly not performance in terms of whatever the board thinks it means. We've seen what happens when they're allowed to think for themselves.